Is pension triple lock soon to be unpicked?

IT WOULD be fair to say the country is strapped for a bit of cash at the moment.

- MARTYN BROWN

Weak economic growth, Rachel Reeves’s blunder Budget and Donald Trump’s tariffs bombshell has left the Government checking down the back of the sofa for some much-needed loose change.

Sir Keir Starmer has already slashed foreign aid to save a few billion in order to beef up Britain’s defence budget.

Then the Chancellor announced scything spending cuts to balance the books in last month’s Spring Statement, as she scrambled to fill a £14billion black hole in the Treasury’s finances.

She swung the axe at Britain’s bloated welfare bill, lopping off £3.4billion.

Let’s also not forget Labour's devastating cut to the winter fuel payment for pensioners within days of entering office last summer.

The desperate quest to save money has turned attention to another benefit for the elderly — the triple lock on pensions.

Until now, the sacred cow of British politics has widely — and rightly, as far as the Express is concerned — been regarded as untouchable.

The lock guarantees the state pension rises each year by whichever is the highest of the Consumer Prices Index inflation measure, wage rises or a fixed rate of 2.5%.

The Government has committed to keeping it until the next general election, which must be held by August 2029.

However, the spectre of reform has grown in recent months.

Despite Sir Keir’s protestations that the policy will stay, many in the Labour ranks are questioning its future.

And perhaps more worryingly, questions are being raised among Tory circles too.

In December, a couple of months after Michael Gove was made editor, politically conservative magazine The Spectator hinted its time was up.

A punchy editorial on Sir Keir’s performance suggested not everything the Prime Minister had done to that point was wrong.